Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 25:14-30

"For [it is] as [when] a man, going into another country, called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his several ability; and he went on his journey. Straightway he that received the five talents went and traded with them, and made other five talents. In like manner he also that [received] the two gained other two. But he that received the one went away and digged in the earth, and hid his lord`s money. Now after a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and maketh a reckoning with them. And he that received the five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: lo, I have gained other five talents. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that [received] the two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: lo, I have gained other two talents. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering where thou didst not scatter; and I was afraid, and went away and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, thou hast thine own. But his lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I did not scatter; thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back mine own with interest. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him that hath the ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away. And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." — Matthew 25:14-30 (ASV)

Glossa Ordinaria: In the preceding parable is set forth the condemnation of those who have not prepared sufficient oil for themselves, whether oil means the brightness of good works, the inward joy of conscience, or alms paid in money.

St. John Chrysostom: This parable is directed against those who will not assist their neighbors with money, words, or in any other way, but hide all that they have.

St. Gregory the Great: The man traveling to a far country is our Redeemer, who ascended into heaven in the flesh He had taken upon Himself. For the proper home of the flesh is the earth; it travels, as it were, to a foreign country when it is placed by the Redeemer in heaven.¹

Origen of Alexandria: He travels, not according to His divine nature, but according to the dispensation of the flesh He took upon Himself. For He who says to His disciples, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20), is the Only-Begotten God, who is not circumscribed by bodily form. By saying this, we do not disunite Jesus, but attribute its proper qualities to each constituent substance.

We may also explain it this way: the Lord travels to a far country with all those who walk by faith and not by sight. And when we are absent from the body with the Lord, then He will also be with us. Observe that the turn of phrase is not, “I am like,” or “The Son of Man is like a man traveling to a far country,” because He is represented in the parable as traveling not as the Son of God, but as man.

St. Jerome: Calling the Apostles together, He gave them the Gospel doctrine—to one more, to another less, not out of His own generosity or stinginess, but according to the capacity of the receivers. As the Apostle saysⁱ, he fed with milk those who were unable to take solid food. In the five, two, and one talent, we recognize the diversity of gifts with which we have been entrusted.

Origen of Alexandria: Whenever you observe those who have received a dispensation of God's oracles from Christ, you will see that some have more and some have less. Some, compared to the better sort, do not have even half an understanding of things, while others have still less. In this, you will perceive the difference among those who have all received God's oracles from Christ. Those to whom five talents were given, those to whom two, and those to whom one, have diverse degrees of capacity, and one could not hold the measure of another. The one who received only one has received no small endowment, for one talent from such a master is a great thing.

He has three distinct servants, just as there are three kinds of those who bear fruit. The one who received five talents is able to elevate all the meanings of the Scriptures to their more divine significations. The one who has two has been taught carnal doctrine (for two seems to be a carnal number), and the Master of the household has given one talent to the less strong.

St. Gregory the Great: Alternatively, the five talents denote the gift of the five senses—that is, the knowledge of external things. The two signify understanding and action, and the one talent signifies understanding only.

Glossa Ordinaria: "And immediately took his journey," not changing his place, but leaving them to their own free will and choice of action.²

St. Jerome: "The one who had received five talents," that is, having received his bodily senses, doubled his knowledge of heavenly things: from the creature, understanding the Creator; from the earthly, the unearthly; from the temporal, the eternal.

St. Gregory the Great: There are also some who, though they cannot pierce to inward and mystical things, still teach rightly what they can, according to their view of their heavenly country. They teach what they have gathered from external things. And while they keep themselves from the wantonness of the flesh, from earthly ambition, and from the delights of visible things, they also restrain others from the same by their admonitions.

Origen of Alexandria: Or, those who have their senses exercised by healthy conduct, both raising themselves to higher knowledge and being zealous in teaching others, have gained another five. This is because no one can easily increase in any virtues that are not his own, and unless he teaches others what he himself knows, he gains no more.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, the servant who received five talents is the people of believers under the Law. Beginning with the Law, they doubled their merit by the right obedience of an evangelical faith.

St. Gregory the Great: Again, there are some who by their understanding and their actions preach to others, and from this gain, as it were, a twofold profit in such merchandise. Their preaching, bestowed upon both sexes, is thus a doubled talent.

Origen of Alexandria: Or, "gained another two" means carnal instruction, and another instruction that is a little higher.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, the servant to whom two talents were committed is the people of the Gentiles, justified by faith and the confession of the Father and the Son, confessing our Lord Jesus Christ to be both God and Man, both Spirit and Flesh. These are the two talents committed to this servant. But just as the Jewish people, by their belief in the Gospel, doubled every Sacrament they had learned in the Law (that is, their five talents), so these people, by the use of their two talents, merited understanding and good works.

St. Gregory the Great: To hide one's talent in the earth is to devote the ability we have received to worldly business.

Origen of Alexandria: Alternatively, when you see someone who has the power of teaching and of benefiting souls hiding this power—even though he may have a certain religiousness in his life—do not doubt that such a person has received one talent and is hiding it in the earth.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, this servant who has received one talent and hidden it in the earth is the people who continue in the Law, who, through jealousy over the salvation of the Gentiles, hide the talent they have received in the earth. For to hide a talent in the earth is to hide the glory of the new preaching because of offense at the Passion of His Body. His coming to reckon with them is the judgment of the last day.

Origen of Alexandria: And note here that the servants do not come to the Lord to be judged, but the Lord will come to them when the time is fulfilled. "After a long time," that is, when He has sent out those who are fitted to bring about the salvation of souls. Perhaps for this reason it is not easy to find one who is quite fit to pass immediately out of this life, as is manifest from this: that even the Apostles lived to old age. For example, it was said to Peter, When you are old, you will stretch out your hands (John 21:18); and Paul says to Philemon, as Paul the aged.

St. John Chrysostom: Observe also that the Lord does not require the reckoning immediately, that you may learn His long-suffering. He seems to me to say this covertly, alluding to the resurrection.

St. Jerome: "After a long time," because there is a long interval between the Savior's ascension and His second coming.

St. Gregory the Great: This lesson from the Gospel warns us to consider whether those who seem to have received more in this world than others will not be more severely judged by the Author of the world; the greater the gifts, the greater the reckoning for them. Therefore, everyone should be humble concerning his talents in proportion as he sees himself bound by a greater responsibility.

Origen of Alexandria: He who had received five talents comes first with boldness before his Lord.

St. Gregory the Great: And bringing his talents doubled, he is commended by his Lord and is sent into eternal happiness.³

Rabanus Maurus: "Well done" is an interjection of joy, the Lord showing us in this the joy with which He invites the servant who labors well to eternal bliss, of which the Prophet speaks, In your presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).

St. John Chrysostom: You good servant—this He means is the goodness that is shown toward our neighbor.

Glossa Ordinaria: "Faithful," because he appropriated to himself none of the things that were his lord's.⁴

St. Jerome: He says, You were faithful in a few things, because all that we have at present, though it seems great and numerous, is nevertheless little and few in comparison to the things to come.

St. Gregory the Great: The faithful servant is set over many things when, having overcome the afflictions of corruption, he rejoices with eternal joy in that heavenly seat. He is then fully admitted to the joy of his Lord when, taken into that abiding country and numbered among the companies of angels, he has such inward joy for this gift that there is no room for outward sorrow over his corruption.

St. Jerome: What greater thing can be given to a faithful servant than to be with his Lord and to see his Lord's joy?

St. John Chrysostom: By this word "joy," He expresses complete blessedness.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This will be our perfect joy, than which there is none greater: to have fruition of that Divine Trinity in whose image we were made.⁵

St. Jerome: The servant who made ten talents from five, and he who made four from two, are received with equal favor by the Master of the household, who looks not to the size of their profit, but to the disposition of their will.

Origen of Alexandria: That He says of both these servants that they "came," we must understand as their passing out of this world to Him. And observe that the same was said to them both; he who had less capacity, but exercised what he had in the manner he ought, will have nothing less with God than he who has a greater capacity. For all that is required is that whatever a man has from God, he should use it all for the glory of God.

St. Gregory the Great: The servant who would not trade with his talent returns to his Lord with words of excuse.⁶

St. Jerome: For truly what is written, To offer excuses for sins (Psalm 141:4, Vulgate), happened to this servant, so that the sin of pride was also added to his slothfulness and idleness. For he who ought to have honestly acknowledged his fault and pleaded with the Master of the household, instead cavils against him. He asserts that he acted with provident design, lest while seeking to make a profit he should risk the capital.

Origen of Alexandria: This servant seems to me to have been one of those who believe but do not act honestly, concealing their faith and doing everything so that they may not be known to be Christians. Such people seem to me to have a fear of God and to regard Him as austere and implacable. We indeed understand how the Lord reaps where He did not sow, because the righteous man sows in the Spirit, from which he will reap life eternal. Also, He reaps where He did not sow and gathers where He did not scatter, because He counts as bestowed upon Himself all that is sown among the poor.

St. Jerome: Also, by what this servant dared to say, You reap where you did not sow, we understand that the Lord accepts the good life of the Gentiles and the Philosophers.

St. Gregory the Great: But there are many within the Church of whom this servant is a type, who fear to set out on the path of a better life, and yet are not afraid to continue in carnal indolence. They esteem themselves sinners and therefore tremble to take up the paths of holiness, but fearlessly remain in their own iniquities.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, by this servant is understood the Jewish people who continue in the Law and say, "I was afraid of you," as if abstaining from the exercise of evangelical liberty through fear of the old commandments. And it says, "Look, here is what is yours," as though it had continued in those things the Lord commanded, even when it knew that the fruits of righteousness would be reaped where the Law had not been sown, and that some would be gathered from among the Gentiles who were not scattered from the seed of Abraham.

St. Jerome: But what he thought would be his excuse is turned into his condemnation. The Lord calls him a "wicked servant" because he caviled against his Lord, and "slothful" because he would not double his talent, condemning his pride in the one and his idleness in the other. "If you knew me to be hard and austere, and to seek after other men's goods, you should also have known that I exact what is my own with more rigor, and you should have given my money to the bankers." The Greek word here (αργυριον) means money.

As it is written, The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in the fire (Psalm 12:6). The money, or silver, then, is the preaching of the Gospel and the heavenly word. This ought to be given to the bankers—that is, either to other teachers, as the Apostles did when they ordained priests and bishops throughout the cities, or to all the believers, who can double the sum and restore it with interest by fulfilling in action what they have learned in word.

St. Gregory the Great: So then, we see both the peril of teachers if they withhold the Lord's money, and that of the hearers from whom what they have heard is exacted with interest—namely, that from what they have heard, they should strive to understand what they have not heard.⁷

Origen of Alexandria: The Lord did not allow that He was "a hard man," as the servant supposed, but He assented to all his other words. But He is indeed hard to those who abuse the mercy of God to allow themselves to become remiss, and do not use it to be converted.

St. Gregory the Great: Let us hear now the sentence by which the Lord condemns the slothful servant: Take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

Origen of Alexandria: The Lord is able by the might of His divinity to take away his ability from the man who is slack in using it, and to give it to him who has improved his own.

St. Gregory the Great: It might seem more reasonable to have given it to the one who had two talents, rather than to the one who had five. But since the five talents denote the knowledge of external things, and the two denote understanding and action, the one who had the two had more than the one who had the five. The man with five talents merited the administration of external things but was still without any understanding of eternal things. Therefore, the one talent, which we say signifies the intellect, ought to be given to him who had well administered the external things he had received. We see the same thing happen every day in the Holy Church: those who faithfully administer external things are also mighty in inward understanding.⁸

St. Jerome: Or, it is given to him who had gained five talents so that we may understand that although the Lord's joy over the labor of each is equal—both for him who doubled the five and him who doubled the two—yet a greater reward is due to him who labored more with the Lord's money.

St. Gregory the Great: Then follows a general sentence: For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance; but from him who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away. For whoever has charity also receives the other gifts; but whoever does not have charity loses even the gifts he seemed to have.⁹

St. John Chrysostom: Also, he who has the graces of eloquence and teaching to profit with them, and does not use them, loses that grace; but he who makes an effort to put them to use acquires a larger share.

St. Jerome: Many who are naturally clever and have a sharp wit, if they become neglectful and spoil by disuse the good they have by nature, lose their natural gift. In comparison to one who is somewhat dull by nature but compensates for his slowness with industry and diligence, they see the reward promised to them pass away to others.

But it may also be understood this way: to him who has faith and a right will in the Lord, even if he falls short in any deed as a human being, more will be given by the merciful Judge. But he who does not have faith will lose even the other virtues he seems to have naturally. And He says carefully, From him who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away. For whatever is without faith in Christ ought not to be imputed to the one who uses it amiss, but to Him who gives the goods of nature even to a wicked servant.

St. Gregory the Great: Or, whoever does not have charity loses even those things he seems to have received.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: And on those who have the privilege of the Gospels, the honor of the Law is also conferred; but from him who does not have the faith of Christ is taken away even that honor which seemed to be his through the Law.

St. John Chrysostom: The wicked servant is punished not only by the loss of his talent, but by an intolerable punishment and a denunciation joined with the accusation.

Origen of Alexandria: Into outer darkness, where there is no light—perhaps not even physical light—and where God is not seen. Those who are condemned to it are condemned as unworthy of the contemplation of God. We have also read of someone before us who expounded this as the darkness of the abyss that is outside the world, as though, being unworthy of the world, they were cast out into that abyss, where there is darkness with nothing to lighten it.

St. Gregory the Great: And thus, for punishment, he who has of his own free will fallen into inward darkness will be cast into outer darkness.

St. Jerome: We have explained what "weeping and gnashing of teeth" means above.

St. John Chrysostom: Observe that not only he who robs others, or who works evil, is punished with extreme punishment, but also he who does not do good works.

St. Gregory the Great: Let him, then, who has understanding see to it that he does not hold his peace. Let him who has affluence not be dead to mercy. Let him who has the art of guiding life communicate its use with his neighbor, and let him who has the faculty of eloquence intercede with the rich for the poor. For the very least endowment will be reckoned as a talent entrusted for use.¹⁰

Origen of Alexandria: If you are offended by what we have said—namely, that a man will be judged if he does not teach others—call to mind the Apostle's words: Woe is to me if I do not preach the Gospel! (1 Corinthians 9:16).

1. Hom. in Ev., ix, i
2. ord.
3. Hom. in Ev., ix, 2
4. non occ.
5. de Trin., i, 8
6. Hom. in Ev., ix
7. Hom. in Ev., ix, 4
8. Hom. in Ev., ix, 5
9. Hom. in Ev., ix, 6
10. Hom. in Ev., lx, 7